They Called Me FIVE

LANCE

I've been locked up for 70 days.

My life becomes die each minute, honed death waves and total silence. They kill me every day in a strict schedule. First day, the Beast feeding. (They trapped me in chains and let fifty Beasts feed on my flesh without rest all day.) Second day, Mark extraction. (The 'boss' Lista has referred to has arrived. He's a literal Dark Elves from movies alright. Shiny scalp, pointy ears, black dead eyes, crooked grimy teeth, with flashy bronze spear and shiny blue royal cape wrap around platinum armor.

I saw Meira in the crowd of onlookers when they greeted him. Lista was there, beside him is Dad, then the Twylyth I saw in my dream was three person from their left, beside her, is the humanoid that killed my Mom. 

My blood rushed to the surface watching them. I clawed on the walls until my fingernails tore apart. I bared my teeth, I growled, I howled like a wild animal inside my cell. No one can hear me anyway.

And the scene of the 'boss' arrival is projected in the wall. Even if I don't want to watch it, those sick bastards doesn't care. The feed move closer to the boss's ugly face. I don't know whose uglier, those gnomes in fairy tales or him. Except the hairless feature, there's not much any difference. 

They showed displayed video bloopers on me killing every man they sent in my way. Just by sucking on their life force by mouth. I stared at my face. I'm filthy with my dried blood. My clothes are barely holding together. 

I'm like a human leashed dog. Hideous. Gruesome. No traces of the fifteen year old innocent boy staring right back at me 70 days ago. In just two months my life has changed. My crazy whacks have worsen. I growled at Lista each time he showed his face in my cell.

Sometimes scratched him until the other skully warriors stops me by barreling me in my own make shift bed. Life particles in the barrel of their bullets. 

Yeah, you heard it right. 'Life blessing'. Seven's gift. In the hell experiments they put us through, Lista found out my only weakness is Seven's blessing. My body parts outgrowing has speed up, they're scared whether I have become an undead monster. 

Which I am, technically, because of the hell they've done to me. No damage from the Beasts nor any Faery mana they fire at me is permanent. Except Seven's blessing. 

How they acquire it I don't know. 

Ever since I became their prisoners, I haven't seen a silhouette of the two. I received no news from them either. Just to imagine Seven and Magnus received tortures ten times worse than I endured terrifies me.

I'm barely human right now. My hatred for them, to witness their downfall right in my very eyes is my only drive to not lose my sanity. And the bleak image of us three getting out of here. 

I detect footsteps with my heighten senses. I stiffen. Then shuffled on my chains and sat very still on my make shift bed. A battered foam under a tattered blanket. I hear voices despite the walls in my cell being soundproof. 

"Is he here?"  A voice so inhuman it could spike the chilly atmosphere in my cell. 

"Yes, Master."  That was Lista's voice. Master, I noted. He didn't call him boss. 

"How's the blessing extraction coming up?" The footsteps stop right in front of my cell's metal door. 

"Sorry, Master. The results weren't showing any signs of improvement. I've been using a newly improvised human slave to extract Five's blessing but the results are disappointing as we speak."

"Why?" I can detect anger in his inhuman voice.

"A-at first it shows favorable stats. But ever since we brought Five here and started the excruciating persecution to death… the extraction of the Auf has failed drastically." 

The 'boss' roared and someone yelped helplessly and got slammed in the wall.

"Then find a way for it to work! I did not put you here so you could dilly dawdle like pests, you fool! Five is your assignment. Do your job properly!" 

"Ye – yes Master." Looks like it wasn't Lista who got flung in the wall. 

"Have you find out how to convert 'blessing' into 'mana'? And don't tell me no, or it will be your neck I'll snapped in half next!"

I can't see what's going on. But I can tell their whimpering in their feet facing the boss.

"Ye-yes Master. It's the girl, Seven. Her 'Life blessing', not only can heal any wounds and make plants grow, but it can also alter the magical properties of certain things. Yesterday, she succeeded in changing the Beast's physical form and destructive power into a small cat. If trained properly, she can start transforming her own 'blessing' into 'mana'." 

"No, don't do that. Not Seven, definitely not her."

"Why Master? It's a great opportunity to –"

"You don't understand how her blessing works. Seven is the chosen one of Deity Efta, the Deity of all source of life. We Faeries got our mana from her. And Seven's blessing can only go as far as altering every living thing's physical and ability attributes. Not the magical properties itself. Forced it and we'll catch the Deities' noses right on our track. We don't want that. We need to proceed with caution before going all the way with them. That kind of blessing is contributed to Nine." 

"Nine?" 

I'm tempted to move from my spot and pushed my ear closer to the walls.

"Master, are we proceeding to our plan as presume?"   

"Is the location of Nine revealed?" 

"Not yet, Master. It seems our Seeker has high tolerance from our decapitating tortures. He won't bend to our wishes." That voice…was a woman. A shiver went down to my spine when I can still easily recognize it as if I only heard it yesterday.

It's Meira.

"How about Seven? Is she faring well with your subjugating tactics?" 

There was a long pause before Lista answered. 

"About that... ever since we forced her to change the physical form of a Beast..she's been under a heavy trance. Nothing we do can wake her up. And she... she's not breathing either." 

For the first time in months, I felt a human emotion. Anxiety.